Mike Huckabee on Tuesday compared Election Day to a conservative day of support for the fast food chain Chick-fil-A.

“I think what we saw August the 1st, with all of those people going out and getting a chicken sandwich, Chick-fil-A Day was dress rehearsal for today,” the former Arkansas governor said on Fox News. “I think you are going to see an enormous level of voters from rural parts of the country who have lined up and who will go vote, and I still think Mitt Romney wins when it is all over.”

That was a reference to an event in which conservatives turned out in droves to the restaurants after Chick-fil-A leadership took fire for opposing same-sex marriage.

Pivoting from discussion of Chick-fil-A, Huckabee struck a more serious note when asked about why minority voters seemed to show more support for President Barack Obama. The GOP has a “pathetic” track record of reaching across racial lines, Huckabee charged.

“I think Republicans have done a pathetic job of reaching out to people of color, something we’ve got to work on,” the former governor of Arkansas said on Fox News. “It’s a group of people that frankly should be with us based on the real policy of conservatism.”

But Republicans, he said, have given up too easily on securing votes among minority demographics.

“Republicans acted as if they can’t get the vote, so they don’t try,” Huckabee said. “And the result is, they don’t get the vote.”

Still, Huckabee added, ideology — rather than race — is the more important voting factor.

“I absolutely reject the notion that white people are voting for Mitt Romney, black people are voting for Barack Obama,” he said. “I think conservatives are voting for Mitt Romney and liberals are voting for Barack Obama. This country is still a divided country ideologically, more than it is racially.”